Ground breaks for surgical Center

The Price City Council has approved the construction of a multi specialty ambulatory surgical center on Fairgrounds Road. The new facility will have two full operating rooms, a minor procedure room, and a dedicated laser room. It will be a state-of-the-art facility, with the capability to perform a variety of surgical procedures using both local and general anesthesia.

In approving the application for construction, members of the planning and zoning committee recognized the need in Carbon county for an outpatient surgical facility. Price City Mayor Joe Piccolo and his staff worked closely with the developers to ensure that the needs of the city and people of Price were met by the newly developed facility.

Groundbreaking for the new facility occurred on June 19. Completion is anticipated in December of this year. The facility will be licensed by the state and certified to perform procedures for both the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

The new surgicenter will be located on Fairgrounds Road directly above the Holiday Inn. The building will be designed for convenient parking and access by patients and families.

Carbon and Emery county residents will benefit in several ways from the new facility. In addition to easy access, the surgical center will be able to provide surgical services at lower cost than can be provided in a hospital. Many patients who have gone "over the mountain" in years past will now be able to receive services locally.

According to Jeffrey Hansen, M.D., Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Castleview Hospital, the surgical center will be helpful to provide outpatient surgical services in an economical way, but some surgeries will still require the inpatient facilities provided by Castleview Hospital. Dr. Hansen stresses the important contribution the hospital makes in our community, but he believes that the surgicenter will function to keep patients from leaving Carbon County for outpatient operations. Dr. Hansen is one of the surgeons who will be developing and using the surgical center.

There has been a national trend in the last 25 years to establish ambulatory surgical centers as a way of providing outpatient surgeries in an economical and patient-friendly way.

The Medicare program, private insurance companies, and patients all benefit by having outpatient surgeries performed in smaller, more user friendly and efficient facilities.